'BUY LIBERTY BONDS'' 



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MUGGING 



THE KAISER 



AND HIS PALS 



BY 

FRANK URBAN 



WAR! WHY NOT? 

TO SAFEGUARD AMERICAN 

CAPITAL, INDUSTRY, 
AND THE RIGHT TO LABOR 

BY 

JOHN W. BATDORF 



Copyright, 1918, 
By Anti-Socialist Press. 



THE ANTI-SOCIALIST PRESS, Publishers 

^ 117 West 132d Street :: :: :: NEW YORK CITY 

''HELP THE RED CROSS'' 



INTRODUCTION BY LOUIS RUBIN 

First Secretary o£ the National Executive Committee 

of the 

AMERICAN CONSTITUTIONAL ALLIANCE 

In the shadows of progress the world is engaged in a cruel and san- 
guinary war. A universal, reckless sweep of unreason, inspired by German 
autocracy, is breaking down all the living forces of the soul, leaving it 
inert, trembling and terrified. The human mind stands bewildered in the 
presence of its formidable creations, as this ineffable conflict is relent- 
lessly plucking from the garden of life the flowers of youth and virginity. 
Titanic in her destructive power, haughty in her dealings, wondrous in 
her accomplishments of devastation, she would leave the world, which 
bore the torturous windings of this conquest with the most unpretending 
valor, a helpless, degenerating ruin. Atrociously criminal, she alone stands 
upon the pinnacle of depravity. She only in the supremacy of crime hath 
told us that she has forgotten the obligation to be virtuous; and when 
we gaze upon brave little Belgium, and war-stricken Europe in general 
and behold her smitten fields, her ruined cities and desolate homes, we 
are instantly confronted by these dreadful truths. 

Tones of thunder, tongues of flame, are surprisingly impotent in de- 
scriptive power when called upon to delineate the horrible activities of 
this cognate slaughter, which is de-humanizing and deflouring part of the 
human family. Germany has transformed prescious altruistic instinct for 
the preservation of others to an uncontrollable mania for revenge, and has 
wrung unquenchable tears from countless millions of wives, mothers and 
sweethearts, as the blossom of manly youth is being ruthlessly murdered 
upon the human abattoir. She loudly applauds all the vice that a degrad- 
ing slavery engenders by the principles of war. And until the world 
overthrows this treacherous bond of war-lords, who derive power not 
(from the consent of the governed, but by brutal force, will the world be 
free to move onward and attain the ideals of ultimate Democracy. 

But, ascending from this yawning hollow, shining above the horizon of 
this universal pestilence, there looms up the energetic, inextinguishable 
light of Democracy that radiates the path of moral rectitude, informing 
us that we can firmly and confidently proclaim that the breath of that 
divinely planted aspiration — the passion for freedom — will prove to be 
mightier than all the brutally, materialistic strength, and all the prodigious 
armaments which seem to have laid the world low. With the dawning 
of Democracy, great, stirring human emotions will vitalize every fibre of 
her glittering fabric, as the souls of men, women, and children are liber- 
ated from the dungeons of warfare's greed In which they have been 
heartlessly incarcerated by despicable autocracy, shocking their sensibili- 
ties and marblelzing their spiritual faculties. 

Then shall the human heart, pregnant with a desire for righteousness, 
and under a solemn consciousness of the sanctity of the flame of life, 
cry out in protest against a repetition of this most lamentable holacaust, 
and, by adopting pure and courageous democratic government, make an 
end of war forever. 

SEP! 1918^ 

...••• ©Gi.ASOirS'? 



THE AMERICAN CONSTITUTIONAL ALLI- 
ANCE meets every Friday evening at 8 P. M., at 117 
West I32d Street (near Lenox Ave.), New York City, 
for discussions on the Geometric Tax and kindred sub- 
jects. All sober-minded and patriotic persons, inter- 
ested in maintaining our Constitutional Government 
and supporting those morals which demand purity and 
honesty in legislative enactments, holding that Social- 
ism and Bolshevikism are not only inimical but de- 
structive to our ideals of Americanism, are most 
cordially welcomed. 

Send stamps for five books — "War! Why not?" 
"Dynamic Democracy," "The Menace of the I. W. W." 
"Americanism" and "Socialism." Ten cents each. 



MUGGING 

THE KAISER AND HIS PALS 
PART I 

We are at war with the most damnable cut-throat 
that ever lived ; with the biggest rough-neck of which 
history has any record; with the greatest outlaw that 
ever left his footprints in the sands of time. 

This war was forced upon us by an Imperial idiot, 
by an Aristocratic pediculous, by a Royal lunatic, by 
a Monarchical maniac — Kaiser Will-Hell of Prussia, 
the Beast of Berlin, the Royal bum of Germany. 

A God-forsaken, heathen-stricken and benighted 
Prussian Prince, with a paralyzed arm, a diseased 
brain and a withered soul, has plunged the world into 
a catastrophe of a hideously grim reality — war. 

There can be no substantially abiding peace until 
this Lucifer of dynamic German Kultur — Schrecklich- 
keit — is taken by the scruff of the neck and the seat of 
the pants and his dirty, rotten, stinking, putrid carcass 
is cast into the Rhine river, or he is hung beneath a 
Linden tree in Germany, or made a prisoner in Bel-, 
gium with King Albert as his keeper, or guillotined in 
Paris. 

We will have peace when the moustache of this 
Satanic vulture is combed down instead of up and the 
Stars and Stripes shall fly in victory's name from every 
flag-pole over every castle upon the Rhine. 



WAR! WHY NOT? 



Old Glory has never yet touched the ground. We 
have unsheathed the sword for justice and for human- 
ity, in defence of our nation's honor and the safety 
of civilization. That sword will never be returned 
until Germany is beaten and might and force are no) 
longer the measure of right.* We have never lost a, 
battle. We will and must win this battle. We cannot 
lose; we have never lost. 

Some simple-minded ginks in this country think that 
the Teutonic Tumble-bugs are going to win because 
they stick it out so long. Take it from me, the guy 
who is so intellectually obtuse as to think that Ger^ 
many will win is a simple-minded boob. We are bleed- 
ing Germany to death. Even Macbeth had his Mac- 
duff and Caesar had his Brutus. When the war is over 
Wilhelm HohenzoUem will look like a sick cat that 
was out in the rain all night. "Die Wacht am Rhine" 
may yet have to be changed to "Die Schlacht am 
Rhine." 

On what doth this Kaiser feed that he has waxed 
so brazen, so mendacious, supercilious, presumptious, 
so egotistic and so rapacious? 

Behold him riding on his firey stallion, faster than 
the fastest horse in hell. There he sits, that hound of 
hell, on his spirited steed. He addresses the Germanic 
army, the rapers of women, the massacrers of chil- 
dren, the devisers and users of poison gas, curtains of 
fire and divers other contrivances of hell. What does 
this plenipotentiary of hades say to the ambassadors 
of hell? "I and God are in this battle." Yes! "I" 
come first and God comes last. "I and God." Did 
you ever hear of such a ludicrous exhibition of exag- 
gerated egotism? Every time the Kaiser sees the 
Devil he thinks it's God. Methinks he is afflicted with 
mental astigmatism, causing him to suffer mistaken 
identity. 

He sits four thousand miles from here upon a ver- 
min-infested throne, beneath a moth-eaten, worm- 
eaten, mildewed, cankered and louse-ridden crown — 
surrounded by the Potsdam gang, the Junker pirates, 
and the Prussian huns. He violently itches with an 
insatiable ambition to materialize the dream of Han- 
nibal, of Alexander the Great, of Julius Cassar and of 
Napoleon — the dream of world-wide dominion. 



WAR! WHY NOT? 



The Kaiser as a real-estate crook is trying to rival 
William the Norman Conqueror. This agent of the In- 
ferno has drawn his sword and run amuck and seeks 
to reign supreme. We are fighting Teutonic militar- 
ism, German autocracy and Prussian bureaucracy. 

The fundamentals of Democracy are threatened, the 
essence of civilization has been outraged. Beautiful 
Venice and peace-loving Belgium have been raped. 
The grandest works of priceless art have been ruth- 
lessly shattered. 

The most magnificent cathedrals have been perfor- 
ated with German shells. Northern France lies deso- 
lated. Serbia, Poland and Roumania are shambles. 
Russia has been betrayed and seduced by the intellec- 
tual legerdemain and the camouflage of German 
Kultur. 

Thousands of our boys are "over there" now. Mil- 
lions more are going "over the top." 

"They won't come back until they're through over 
there." 

Mere prayer will not win this war, applause will not 
win it, oratorical pyrotechnics and elocutionary par- 
oxysms will not win it. 

What we need is life, force, action, spirit, vigilance. 
In other words, molasses. 

If we don't get some pep we will die of the pip. 

Our boys are now in action in the very trenches- 
Some are giving their arms, their legs, their eyes, their 
blood — ^yes, their very lives. Every thrift-stamp helps 
to get a War-Saving Stamp, and that means one more 
hair out of the Kaiser's moustache. 

Every fifty-dollar Liberty Bond means another nail 
in the Kaiser's coffin. Every hundred means another 
Hun- dead . This is a war against an anachronistic 
form of government. 

We must fight and fight and fight until we win. 
Those at home constitute the second line of defense. 
The second line is as important as the first line. The 
two lines are complimentary. One cannot exist with- 
out the other. 

Those who cannot wear a uniform and must stay at 
home have sacred obligations and serious responsibil- 
ities to execute. "Government of the people, by the 
people, and for the people" cannot become a living. 



WAR! WHY NOT? 



monumental, concrete and international reality until 
the Kaisers and Queens, the Czars and Sultans, the 
Dukes and Princes, the Counts and Counts-of-No-Ac- 
count, and the Royal bums and loafers including the 
whole gang of blue-blooded, aristocratic, snobbish 
pieces of monarchical antique furniture are cast in the 
junk heap and the common man rules. 

PART II 

When the governments shall derive their just 
powers to govern from the consent of the governed, 
then swords can be turned into plow-shares and prun- 
ing hooks. Then liberty will walk the streets of the 
world bold and unafraid. Then we will have the 
dawning of the day of international human liberty — 
the belated coming of the Prince of Peace, the fulfill- 
ment of the dream of Tennyson, **the federation of the 
world, the parliament of man." 

But to-day we are fighting to defend the ethical 
growth of two thousand years. Everything that God 
looked upon and was well pleased with, is being dese- 
crated and devastated by the hordes of barbarians. 
The Kaiser told Gerard that Germany would stand for 
no nonsense from us when the war is over ; and by the 
eternal God, we will stand for no Kaiser when this 
war is over. The Kaiser broke the people and madcl 
war. The people will break the Kaiser and make 
peace. Think not that this war is only across the big 
pond. Right here in these United States we have a 
lot of friends of the Kaiser, who go around with their 
egg-shaped heads, phony pompadours, melancholy 
looks, soft-collar shirts and big black neckties, vomit- 
ing forth their diarrhetic diatribe. They preach trea- 
son and sedition, shout "to hell with the flag" and "to 
hell with the government." They seek to discourage 
enlistment and endeavor to encourage desertion. They 
are as welcome in this nation as a pork chop is in a 
Jewish restaurant or a beef stew in a Catholic family 
on Friday. They are the unpatriotic element in this 
country. A bunch that is ninety-nine per cent patri- 
otic is just like a fish that is ninety-nine per cent fresh. 
You can only notice one per cent of it and that don't 
smell good. 



WAR! WHY NOT? 



That one per cent is the half-starved, brain-shriv- 
elled, lickspittle, blatherskite, mountebank, atheistic, 
demagogic. Socialistic, anarchistic, pussy-footed, 
white-livered, chicken-hearted, yellow-streaked con- 
glomeration of hypocritical, intellectual job lots, who 
plague the moral world like small-pox, and scarlet 
fever plague the physical world. 

Some of these pseudo, shyster, high-browed and 
crack-brained philosophers were born in this country, 
but most of them came from foreign shores. They 
brought with them a philosophy that had its birth in 
the rat-holes of European civilization. 

These offshoots from the pest-holes of Europe came 
here of their own free will. Nobody forced them to 
come here. They heard this country heralded trum- 
pet-tongued from the house-tops to the farthest ends 
and innermost recesses of civilization as "the land of 
the free and the home of the brave,** as "Columbia the 
gem of the ocean,'* as a haven of refuge for the down- 
trodden and oppressed. If they thought that they made 
a mistake in their choice, why did they not pack up 
their bag and baggage and go back from whence they 
came and enjoy the luxuries they had before they saw 
America? 

They came here and they enjoyed free speech, free 
press and took advantage of our liberties and oppor- 
tunities. They saved up their money by living below 
the standard of American living. They lived on a 
hunk of rye bread, some black tea and a herring. Then 
they were wont to go on board a ship, put their fingers 
to their nose and have the brazen effrontery and im- 
mitigated audacity to tell us to go to a place where 
ice-cream, snow-balls and skating is unknown and im- 
possible. 

Throughout this land you will find that species of 
characteristic, typical Socialistic, anarchistic soap- 
boxer. The only use they have for soap, is the boxes 
the soap comes in. 

Friends of the Bolsheviki, they are the ilk that claims 
to have sprung from the soil. They must have taken 
some of the soil with them when they sprang. The 
war is over here as well as "over there." If you hear 
a suspicious remark and witness a suspicious action 



WAR! WHY NOT? 



on the part of any individual, make a note of the inci- 
dent, secure the name and address of the party or fol- 
low him to secure information as to where such party 
is located. Send your information to the United 
States Department of Justice. They welcome such 
co-operation. The Department of Justice receives a 
lot of such information. They admit that most of it 
cannot be used and yet they welcome it because they 
and not you should be the judge of the value of such 
information. 

The Kaiser has many friends in this country who are 
faithfully, conscientiously and diligently serving the 
weiner-wursting, sour-krouting, beer-guzzling, hot-dog 
gang of Germany. 

Who is it that is sending our piers up in smoke, 
reducing our sugar refineries to ashes, d5mamiting mu- 
nition plants, burning our factories, setting on fire our 
grain fields, putting glass in bread, putting glass in 
candy, maliciously and wilfully wasting food, putting 
cocaine, heroin and morphine in the whiskey given to 
our soldiers and sailors, and who is it, I ask, that is 
poisoning our cattle? 

It is done by the Huns, by Teutonic spies, by friends 
of the Kaiser. They should not be interned in prison, 
but they should be interned in coffins. Any man who 
says one friendly word for Germany should be shot, 
hung or sent to prison. We have in this nation a lot 
of those who have a divided allegiance, a twofold al- 
legiance. They call themselves German-Americans. I 
mean the hyphenated American ; the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. 
Hyde American. The type of now you see it and 
now you don't. When you think they are, they're not, 
when you think they're not, they are. 

Did you ever go in a street car, or did you ever gq) 
out in public and see a fellow reading a German daily 
paper? Did your blood boil at the sight of it? Did 
you feel like going over and tearing it out of his 
hands? Did you ever feel that way? Well, if you 
did then you are an Americanized American — at least 
that is an evidence of it. I would not patronize a man 
who sells German papers. You don't have to patron- 
ize a man who sells German papers. Do you think 
that a man who sells German papers is worthy of the 



WAR! WHY NOT? 



patronage of loyal Americans? Do you think so? 
Well, I don^t. We want one country, one flag and 
one language — the English language. We want the 
good old language of the U. S. A. — we love it and we 
cherish it. Let us hope to see the day when sedition- 
ists and treason-mongers are dealt with more drasti- 
cally and stringently. 

Every person who directly or indirectly interferes 
with the military operations of the United States, or 
who by word or act attempts to interfere with the 
unity, efficiency and integrity of the Allies, should be 
handed over to the military authorities and if found 
guilty, should be taken out at sunrise, lined up against 
a stone wall and shot by a firing squad. Germanism 
is an insidious disease that runs to the marrow of the 
bone, sometimes to the third and fourth generation, 
like syphilis. 

The I. W. W.— the Imperial Warriors of Wilhelm— - 
aire on the job. Billy Sunday said they were bums.' 
B-u-m, Bum. Of course that is not a pedantic phrase, 
it might grate on the sensibilities of an intellectual 
snob, you see; it isn't indicative of a scholarly state 
of mind. It is a crude colloquialism. It is speaking 
in the vernacular — in current slang. The dictionary 
defines bum as a loafer. If a bum is a loafer and a 
loafer is a slacker and a slacker is a Socialist, then the 
Socialist is a bum. 

Let me conclude with a little poem by Colonel Bun- 
ner, the President of the Toledo, Ohio, Stock Ex- 
change. He recited this poem from the Land Battle- 
ship at Union Square. It is dedicated to the consci- 
entious objector, to those who act like a lot of colonial 
dames playing bean bag in a weedy lot back of an 
orphan asylum. It is not as classical as The Lady of 
the Lake, or Childe Harold, or The Raven, or The 
Rape of the Locke, or The Ancient Mariner, or The 
Song of the Shirt. 

"This is the tale of the mob I saw 
" Trying to defy the conscription law. 

Bums in front and bums behind, 

Bums of every conceivable kind. 

Bums that were poor and bums that were rich, 

Bums that were dirty and bums with the itch, 



WAR! WHY NOT? 



Socialist, anarchist, slacker and sneak, 
Faces impertinent, brazen and weak; 
Eager and anxious to hide behind 
Any old skirt of any old kind, 
Massed the steps of the City Hall, 
Crowding and pushing until ready to drop, 
Not an Irishman present excepting the cop." 

So let's get on the iob and consign the whole bunch 
into oblivion ; let's relegate them into the limbo of the 
unknown; let's send them into innocuous desuetude. 
Now that we have stripped the Kaiser to his naked- 
ness, revealing his true inwardness — this is the 
MORAL: 

I£ the Kaiser is fifty per cent Mephistopheles and 
fifty per cent Lucifer cemented with brimstone — 
where does he get off? 

PART III 

These are tempestuously bellicose days. All hands 
are needed on deck. We want no shirkers, no slack- 
ers, no pikers and no rummies. What is requisite at 
this moment is action. The problem before us is a 
most simple one. Shall the accumulated moral growth 
of the ages survive and thrive, or shall an atavistic 
horde of cave philosophers obliterate such achieve- 
ment. 

It is pathetic to note the existence of Rip Van 
Winkle sophists who seem to be utterly oblivious to 
the appalling predicament confronting us. This nation 
is plagued by cloud-soaring theories advanced by 
bumptious venders of intellectual poison-gas bombs. 

This gas was made in Germany. It was hatched, 
concocted and reared in Heidelberg University. It 
was labelled Socialism, and the Devil was well pleased 
and all hell smiled because it was made in Germany. 
Its meritricious adornments cleverly concealed its ulti- 
mate purpose. On the day of its birth the Emperor 
of Germany dined with his Satanic majesty. They 
winked at one another, occasionally they smiled, they 
talked at length and the pact was sealed. 

It was agreed to spill Socialism around the world. 
Pacifism was to be its keynote. 

"Peace, Peace, Peace! Nations of the world, lay 



WAR! WHY NOT? 



down your arms!" That was to be the litany of this 
wolf in sheep's clothing. 

Socialism waxed fat in Germany and with it mili- 
tarism grew faster and ever faster. 

Socialism continued in its cleverly and fiendish de- 
signed plan in preaching peace, peace, peace. 

Socialists of Germany boasted that the Kaiser could 
foment no war, command no army, and that he was 
taken as a joke. 

The Kaiser with his sense of humor encouraged 
their delusion by the fact of his silence. 

Then the psychological moment arrived and Ger- 
many heard the bugle of war. 

The conspiracy of Hell and Berlin were productive. 
The nations were not prepared. Germany, the strong- 
est Socialistic nation in the whole world was the most 
highly developed military monstrosity. 

The consummate genius of German Kultur was sum- 
moned. The German people had developed within 
themselves a form of unconscious gullibility which 
found its source in the servile state. This gullibility 
was fostered further by the fact that German Kultur 
cultivated a fetichism of an obsolete form of govern- 
ment which was based upon th€ pseudo doctrine that 
the Kaiser was a relatively historical necessity. 

The net result was that we were caught like rats 
in a trap. 

But the secret of our strength lies in our ideals. 
Ideals that are not founded on a mess of pottage guar- 
anteed by a servile state. 

Germany is confronted with the inflamed spirit of 
fighters whose ideals are those of a free people and 
liberty-loving nations. 

A certain species of anthropoids so typical prior to 
the advent of this war is rapidly becoming extinct. 

The Pithecanthropus Erectus is indeed a quite in- 
teresting specimen in paleontology. But just before 
that ultra-mellow pimple of the Hohenzollern family 
took occasion to spill his puss of barbarism, we were 
sorely plagued with a tribe of mentally debilitated 
mutts, and remnants of driftwood. 

We had with us the fop, the simp, the prig, and the 
coxcomb. We had with us that yellow-stain-fingered, 
crimp-stick sucker who was wont to stand at the street 



WAR! WHY NOT? 



corners, smoke Meccas, eight rides to heaven for a 
nickel, and spit at an angle of forty-five degrees. 

His education in reference to a philosophy of life was 
acquired from such imperishable classics as Diamond 
Dick, Buffalo Bill, Jessie James, Luck and Pluck, 
Work and Win. 

Then, also, we must not forget that talcum-powd- 
ered, marshmallow-nosed, super-selfconscious damsel. 
The article that's powdered and puffed, padded and 
painted, rouged and shellaced, white-washed and cal- 
cimined, varnished and enamelled, with penciled eye- 
brows, tinselled eye-lashes, bella-donna eyes, spit curls, 
fly-by-night beauty spots, rats, switches, phony 
tresses, fake curls, even such as she, is emancipating 
herself from the spineless and vapid frivolity of a pur- 
poseless existence. 

The painted doll is vanishing. War with its atmos- 
phere of a serious demeanor is making extinct the 
fluffy-ruffle type of a veritable imitation of an Egyp- 
tian mummy. Myriads of those whose appearance 
suggested that they had been prepared by an under- 
taker — really they looked uncanny — the kind that if 
you kissed them you*d be apt to die of painter's colic 
or lead-poisoning; these are all a vanishing set. 

The black-sheep of the family, the good-for-nothin*, 
has become good for somethin*. . He is in the army or 
the navy. He's a man's man now. He's a man 
amongst men now. 

The girl? Oh, she's selling thrift stamps, or she's 
active with the Red Cross. She too is doing her bit. 
It's the makin' of a man and the makin' of a woman* 

The whole country is assuming a distinct, martial 
and military atmosphere. We are all agreed that the 
Hun must be canned and that we will have no peace 
imtil we put the kibosh on the Kaiser. 

We will have abiding peace when the Von Hinden- 
bergs, the Von Tirpitzs, the Von Hertlings and the 
Von Bernstoffs have the aristocratic part of their name 
deleted— ^when we cut off the V-O-N. Their names 
will be deleted when their forces are depleted. 

The days of Germany's defeat will be the hour of 
social redemption for the German people. Perhaps our 
beloved President Woodrow Wilson will then help 
them to establish a democratic form of government — 



WAR! WHY NOT? 



yes, indeed, if need be, we might even loan them Teddy 
for a while. At this moment, however, it is quite idle 
to indulge in speculations. The immediate task at 
hand is war. 

That we are at war is a known fact to almost every- 
one, yet there are a few bipeds who act as if they 
were not wise to this fact. Really, some folks are so 
antediluvian, it would not be a surprise to me if they 
did not know that the Civil War was over. Then 
again, it seems to be a fashion amongst a certain class 
of people — a sort of a cussed habit — to speak of the 
prime Hohenzollern oasis as the Devil's disciple. I 
reckon they mean by that that he's "some hell of a 
feller." 

Did you ever listen to a mentally debilitated mutt 
who vapors his commentaries in the form of surmises 
that the Kaiser will win? 

Of course, you've heard of the beggar on his way 
to Vanity Fair. Then also, about the hobo with not 
enough Indians to nip a bloke in a Bowery somnolence 
emporium. 

But say! By the way, did you ever accumulate a 
eustachean tube full of Cardinal Wolsey stuff? Re- 
member how in despair that guy threw up his hands 
and said something about, "Oh, my God! Why hast 
thou left me naked and alone in this world?" Imagine 
the Kaiser. Talk about naked and alone! Why, he 
won't have a shirt to his name when the war is over. 

We mean business. Long enough did we suffer 
humiliation, because we are a peace-loving people. 

We were too proud to fight. Ah! But mark this 
and mark it well, we were not afraid to fight. 

We were too proud to fight in the sense that our 
faith in the ethical development of civilization was so 
great that we hoped to come to an understanding by 
reason of instead of resorting to physical force. 

But we had it revealed to us that we could not settle 
matters that way with the author of a deluxe edition 
of paganism and the ne plus ultra of savagery. 

Promises were broken. Notes were regarded as 
scraps of paper — a sort of papier-mache. The Kaiser 
took up the sword and he shall perish by the sword. 

Moral — He who spills a mess he can't wipe up will 
get the dirty end of the stick. 



SOCIALISM IN AMERICA 

A Reply to Hon. Meyer London, of New York 

SPEECH OF 

HON. HENRY T. RAINEY, 

OF ILLINOIS, 
In the House of Representatives, January ii, 1918. 

Mr. RAINEY. Mr. Speaker, it is with some hesitancy that, with- 
out any preparation, or even with most careful preparation, I enter 
into a discussion of these matters with a man who has on so many 
occasions in this House demonstrated himself to be a master of 
debate. [Applause.] I have listened with great interest to the schol- 
arly address of the gentleman from New York [Mr. London]. We 
have been fortunate in having in this House, whenever we have had 
representatives of the Socialist Party, scholarly, capable, pleasant gen- 
tlemen, and the gentleman from New York is the peer of any of them 
in those particulars. 

The difficulty about socialism is that as it presents many of its 
propositions you can not disagree with them. With unalarming ad- 
vance socialism proceeds in this country and the world, holding, 
always, every position it gains. I am unwilling to agree with the 
position that the gentleman takes so positively and with so much 
force, that the principles enunciated in the President's message to 
this country and to the world, proposing terms of peace, were discov- 
ered by the Socialists of Russia, or were discovered by the Socialists 
of any other country in the world. Prior to the opening of this awful 
war, before the invasion of Belgium, 600 peace societies were at work 
in the civilized nations of the world, every one of them proclaiming 
as fundamental principles those 14 or 15 propositions contained in the 
President's message. Our own Declaration of Independence pro- 
claims the right of peoples to govern themselves, and that is the 
principle which underlies the several peace propositions submitted 
by the President of the United States; first of all, the right of nations, 
great or small, to govern themselves and to work out their own des- 
tinies. And then there follows, as a matter of course, if that principle 
is to be recognized in the world, the principle that the nations must 
disarm, in order that none of them may become strong enough to 
threaten the existence of smaller and weaker nations. The Socialists 
of Russia, in announcing these propositions, discovered nothing new; 
and the fact that a few days later, or about the same time, Lloyd- 
George, speaking for Great Britain, announced substantially the same 
propositions, and that a few hours later the President of the United 
States announced, in substance, the same propositions does not prove 
that any priority of discovery rests with the Socialists of Russia. 

I have been interested in his discussion of this subject to-day, 
because the gentleman from New York [Mr. London], with splendid 
ability and profound scholarship, goes back to the propositions an- 
nounced by Karl Marx, the greatest of all socialists, and calls atten- 
tion to socialism in its international aspect; without an international 
character socialism can not succeed in this world. 

And now I want to call the attention of this House to the re- 
markable advance of socialism among the nations of the world, and 
of socialistic theories here in these United States. The differences 
between the parties as at present organized and as this war proceeds 
are absolutely academic. There are no tariff differences worth men- 
tioning in view of these great questions which loom upon the horizon 
of the nations. The world is being made over in the fiery ordeal of 



war, and after this world war closes you will see in this country, in all 
probability a realignment of parties, greater and more pronounced 
than occurred during the period of the Civil War and after the Civil 
War to meet these new issues. Socialism tenders the greatest of all 
of them. The time is approaching in this country and in the world 
for the nations and the statesmen who lead the thought of the nations 
to determine whether or not socialism is the correct theory upon 
which nations shall conduct themselves through the centuries to 
come. Now, let us see how far we have proceeded in this country in 
the direction of socialism. 

The gentleman has discussed Russian socialism in its international 
aspects. The gentleman is not in harmony with the expressions of 
his own party in this country or in Germany; and if socialism in this 
international aspect means what these propositions indicate, the 
propositions which it is alleged they have submitted to Germany, 
then there seems to be no apparent present international danger from 
the spread of socialism. But within the boundaries of Russia as they 
existed recently socialism is developing and developing with a won- 
derful rapidity. 

We must remember that 80, and perhaps 90, per cent of the people 
of Russia are illiterate. They are not to blame for that. They are 
struggling through illiteracy — let us hope the millions there are 
struggling toward the light. They believe they are. I remember as 
I stand here some of the facts of Russian history. I remember that 
during the early centuries of the Christian era the Slavs, protected 
by the towering heights of the Carpathian Mountains, slowly devel- 
oped and spread over Russia, without any organization, because they 
did not need any organization; without any head men, without any 
chiefs, without any central organization of any kind, because they 
were in no danger from their neighbors. Rome had extended her 
boundaries as far in that direction as she cared to extend them, and 
under these circumstances and without any sort of a government the 
Slav nations developed until they spread over Russia. Then there 
came the failure of the Byzantine Empire, and the necessity for pro- 
tection against their enemies; and the socialistic theories which pre- 
vailed then, although they did not call it socialism and had never 
heard of its principles, of course were unable to protect them against 
their enemies. They invited the Russ, the Norsemen of the Baltic 
Sea, great blond warriors, who came down there at their invitation, 
covered with iron armor, and built castles outside of their villages, 
and exacted a military tribute. And then, following the advent of 
the Russ, there came, the Tartars, and then the Muscovite kings, and 
from that developed the Romanoff regime, which lasted until a recent 
period, and which cemented these vastly different types of people at 
least into one great nation. 

The situation in Russia to-day is this: Ninety per cent of the 
population an illiterate population, following a few dreamers, have 
thrown off the Russ, the Tartar, and the Muscovite king influences, 
and have harked back to the ninth century, when they had only vil- 
lage organizations, and nothing else. 

Principles upon Which All Russian Factions Agree. 

As I stand here I recall the principles upon which all elements in 
Russian politics to-day are united, including the Don Cossacks, who 
are Small land owners They stand united upon these three proposi- 
tions: First, the giving of the land to the peasants; second, the distri- 
bution of the profits of industrials among the workingmen; third, the 
compelling of the well-to-do to pay all the expenses of the Govern- 
ment In harmony with the latter proposition, they have confiscated 
the deposits in the banks of Russia, with the guarantee only that the 
smaller deposits will be protected for the smaller depositors. And if 
we are to believe the reports which reach this Capital City, they have 



% 



confiscated even the deposits in the banks placed there by this Gov- 
ernment to maintain in their capital city an embassy representing the 
greatest Republic in the world. These tendencies are not encouraging. 

How Far Have We Progressed in Socialism? 

Now, let us see how far we are proceeding in this country in the 
direction of socialism. It may be all right in its international aspects 
according to present international world politics, as explained so 
ably and so clearly by the gentleman from New York [Mr. London]; 
but as an interior force within the nations it is obtaining its expres- 
sion in Russia to-day, and we know what it means. I am not ready 
to agree to the spread of socialistic theories, so far as I am con- 
cerned. 

Now, let us see how far we are progressing in that direction. We 
have taken over the railroads with the approval of all their employees, 
and with the vociferous and apparently unanimous approval of the 
owners of the railroads themselves. And the fact that the owners of 
the railroads approve the taking over of the railroads is evidenced 
by the fact that they are^ so anxious to acquire more and more" of 
the stock that the stock is increasing in value almost by leaps and 
bounds. The employees of the railroads are all for the proposition, 
because they expect larger compensation for their services. The own- 
ers of the railroads are in favor of the proposition because they ex- 
pect from their investment a larger and a more assured income. 

The millionaire owners of railroads, the million or more em- 
ployees of railroads, are proceeding in the same socialistic direction, 
demanding more and more compensation, and expecting it now to be 
(guaranteed by the Treasury of the United States or paid out of the 
Treasury of the United States. We sit here to-day face to face with 
the proposition that one-fifth — certainly one-sixth — of the adult voting 
population of the United States are either directly or indirectly on 
the national payroll, and that you have here the power to increase or 
decrease their compensation. I know of no railroad employee, I 
know of no Government employee, who does not want his compensa- 
tion increased. They are willing, all of them, that it be done out of 
the Treasury of the United States, and there is no definite objection 
or protest against this by any party or any definite section of the pop- 
ulation of this country. All of them apparently stand for it, and that 
is socialism, of course. k 

We just agreed to a resolution a few minutes ago in this House 
which means the ultimale ownership and control of the water-power 
possibilities in this country by the Government itself. In 50 years 
from now it will mean it, they say, and if Government ownership 
proceeds to, gather momentum with the rapidity that it has in the 
recent weeks it will not be long until we take them over. We are 
already controlling the distribution of the coal supply. It is not logi- 
cal to control the distribution of coal unless you control also the coal 
mines of the country. The owners of the coal mines will not object, 
and the millions of employees who work in the mines will not object. 
If you take over the coal, why not take over the copper mines and the 
iron mines? The owners of those mines will not object, because it 
means that under our theory of government we must compensate 
them. We can not confiscate their property. They are willing to 
be compensated and to live without effort on their part their lives 
hereafter, their compensation insured out of the Treasury of the 
United States. 

If you take over all these things, why not take over the instru- 
ments for the distribution of intelligence? That is the logical thing — 
to take over the telegraph and telephones of the country. It is just 
as logical to control them as it is to control the Postal Service of 
the country. You will find that the owners will not object; they will 
be satisfied, because it means an easy income for them and for their 



children, paid out of the Treasury of the United States as long as they 
may live, or an adequate lump-sum compensation for the taking over 
of their property. And so we plunge along, being irresistibly drawn 
in this country into the very maelstrom of socialism. 

The Government can do any one thing better than any one 
private individual or any one group of individuals. The Government 
can control the railroads better than private individuals. The Govern- 
ment can control the telephone and the telegraph better than private 
individuals. The Government can do any one thing better than any 
individual or any aggregation of individuals can do it. But when the 
Government commences to do them all, what sort of a situation are 
you up against? 

How Socialism May Come. 

When the Government commences to control all these things, 
with the approval of all the employees of these industries, with the 
approval of all the owners, then that party which favors the per- 
petuity of Government control and ownership w^hen this war ends — 
that party which pledges its unequivocal support of these things — 
will win in the elections, of course. There will be enough voters 
believing themselves to be compensated out of the Treasury to make 
it possible for that party to wnn, and w^hen that party wins under these 
circumstances socialism has arrived in this Nation. Then there comes 
these other things to which so large a portion of the people of the 
United States seem to be chaining themselves without know^ing 
it — a different method of holding land — perhaps it wall be a single- 
tax system or a method of communal ownership. If everybody is 
compensated by the State, then there must be a confiscation of private 
property and private incomes. All of the parties in Russia, including 
the Don Cossacks, have declared against private ownership of any 
kind of property. The Don Cossacks, in their resolutions a short 
time ago. as announced in the papers of this country, say that confis- 
cation of land applies only to the large estates, that estates as large 
as they own wall not be taken. And so we plunge along on this peril- 
ous road without setting any danger signals. 

I have heard able socialistic speeches made upon the floor, none 
abler than the gentleman from New York [Mr. London] can make; 
but I have never heard a Member of Congress during my long period 
of service here who has had enough courage to rise in his place on 
this floor and express dissent from any of the propositions or tenden- 
cies to socialism in this country, and the time has now come when 
you must do it or submit. We must do the things w^e are now doing 
in order to win this war. When the war ends it is going to be a diffi- 
cult matter to maintain our methods of government as they now exist 
and as they have existed from the days of the founders. It is going 
to be an easy thing to sink into socialism with all that socialism may 
mean to the people of the country. While we are making the world 
safe for democracy we must not make it safe for socialism. 

Is the Socialist Party Loyal? 

I do not want my friend from New York to "throw anything at 
me," and I am sure he will not say that I am a "demagogue" if I 
question the loyalty to this Government in the present crisis of the 
party he represents here in this body. So I am simply going to read 
from recent declarations as expressed by them in their emergency con- 
vention held here in the United States just after w^e declared war. 

Mr. LONDON. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield for a mo- 
ment? 

Mr. RAINEY. I prefer not to yield now. 

Mr LONDON. I would ask the gentleman as a favor to yield 
to me at this moment. 

Mr RAINEY. I will do anything for the gentleman as a favor 
except to agree to follow the gentleman in his socialistic career. 



Mr. LONDON. The word "recent" in connection with the war 
will not be applicable to that statement. That statement was adopted 
a short time after the declaration of war — a few days — in the excite- 
ment in the change of the national situation. 

_Mr. RAINEY. The gentleman is right. When I said that it 
was a recent declaration I did not mean that. I meant, and I think I 
said, that I am about to read the declaration of the principles of the 
Socialist Party in the United States, which immediately followed our 
entry into this war, and it was made while the declaration of a state 
of war was being discussed arid unanimously approved by the loyal 
citizens of the United States. Mr. Speaker, the Socialists are splen- 
didly organized; they can get their conventions together quickly, 
and the 200 men who assembled in that emergency convention to pre- 
pare a platform for the Socialists of the country, in the dangerous 
emergency which confronted this Nation, spoke for the Socialists of 
the Nation, and they have had no further meetings since in which 
they have revoked their position or their doctrines. These are their 
serious pronunciamentos, the planks in their war platform. With ref- 
erence to our recent declaration of war, with the news still going over 
the wires every day that in violation of all moral law, in violation of 
all treaties, in violation of all laws of the seas, Americans were being 
murdered upon the seas, in spite of the fact that at that very moment 
great ships with the American flag painted upon their sides were lying 
at the bottom of the British Channel, sunk by a treacherous enemy, 
while claiming to be our friend, they said in this convention of theirs, 
referring to our entry into the war — and I quote the exact language: 

Our entry into this war is a crime against the people of the United 
States and the nations of the world. 

That is what the Socialists of this country stood for then; that 
is what they stand for this day. I have heard no repudiation of that 
principle from the gentleman from New York [Mr. London], who 
represents all the Socialists in the United States here in this body. 
Is that consonant with loyalty? Will any loyal body of the citizens 
of the United States agree to such a proposition as that? With the 
spectacle of bleeding Belgium, of unfortunate Serbia, presented to us. 
with the news of the outraging of women and the murder of children 
coming to us every day, while the red glow of the burning villages 
of Belgium covered the skies, they say that our entry into the war 
was a crime against nations. A crime against what nation? Was it 
a crime against unfortunate Belgium? Was it a crime against bleed- 
ing Serbia? Was it a crime against the people of northern France 
being cruelly murdered by the merciless invaders? The proclama- 
tion proceeds, and I quote again the exact language of this latest 
Socialistic platform in the United States: 

In all modern history there has been no war more unjustifiable 
than the war in which we are about to engage. 

1 know my friend would not charge me with being a demagogue. 
I do not say such expressions are disloyal. It is unnecessary for me 
to say that — it is unnecessary for any loyal citizen to say that — but 
that language speaks for itself. It spoke for itself at that time and 
has spoken for itself throughout the months that have passed since it 
was first uttered. 

I proceed to read again from this latest platform of the Socialist 
Party of the United States. They proceed then to pronounce against 
the delusions of so-called defensive wars, they say — and I quote again: 

The only struggle which would justify the workers in taking up 
arms is a struggle of the working class of the world to free itself from 
economic exploitation and political oppression. 

In other words, the Socialists of these United States are pledged 
by this platform against the war. They are pledged by this platform 
to engage in no war except a war which permits them to take up arms 
against their own exploitation here in this country and against the 



political oppression which they may find here. Many of them came 
here from the oppressed sections of other countries and they seem to 
have become leaders of the Socialists of the United States, and they 
come here claim.ing in this convention that the only fight the Social- 
ists of the United States will make is a fight against this great Gov- 
ernment; that they will take up arms in this Nation for the purpose, 
and for the purpose alone, of overcoming the present method of doing 
things here. Now, is that loyalty to this Government or is that dis- 
loyalty? You know and the country knows what that is, and I am 
not here for the purpose of designating what that is. 

Any patriotic citizen of the United States knows whether that 
sort of an argument, whether that sort of a platform, is loyal or 
disloyal. It comes as near grazing the edge of treason as any ex- 
pression I have heard in this country from any one man or from any 
body of men. And so, imless we are careful, this world menace of 
Socialism, plausibly proceeding and gaining ground slowly and in an 
unalarming manner, is the real issue of the future. 

Present and Future Issues. 

We have been divided here in the United States upon the ques- 
tion of the tariff. We never got out of the protective tariff more 
than the sum of $333,000,000 a year in the peak year of the Payne- 
Aldrich tariff bill. We attempted to reduce the Payne-Aldrich tariff 
bill to $280,000,000. As a matter of fact, in our peak year under the 
Underwood bill, until the war interrupted its procedure, w^e got $225,- 
000,000 a year. A tariff bill can be arranged by imposing maximum 
rates upon all schedules which will yield $400,000,000 and that will 
not mean protection. It will mean that certain schedules must be 
lowered. It will not mean free trade, but will mean certain schedules 
must be higher, but as compared to the stupendous budget which will 
confront this country when this war is over the question of a pro- 
tective tariff for revenue only is from a standpoint of revenue abso- 
lutely negligible. If this war continues three or four years longer — 
and it will in all probability — if this w^ar continues that much longer 
we have staring us in the face, if we retire a billion and a half dollars 
of bonds a year, and we must retire that much — we have staring us 
in the face an annual budget of, how much? An annual budget of 
$6,000,000,000, and the $80,000,000 of tariff fluctuation we can get for 
the Treasury or take out of the Treasury is absolutely negligible. 

If the parties in this country as at present organized continue 
these mock battles of theirs upon issues which are now absolutely 
academic, upon little issues that do not deserve consideration in this 
present great age of the world — when the world is being made over — 
if they continue that sort of course, they will find confronting both 
of them the specter of socialism in this land as w^ell as throughout the 
world. The question is, Are you ready for it? Do you stand for the 
things that Russian socialism — and that is the only nation that has 
ever had an opportunity to express itself upon this question — do you 
stand for the things they stand for in Russia, or are you opposed to 
them? 

Do not deceive yourselves. The old order is changing in the 
world. These new issues are presenting themselves with great force, 
and they must be met. And it is the province of the political parties 
of this country to express themselves along these lines and to get 
ready when this war is over to lower the floodgates ; to return, if they 
can, to the sane methods of holding property; to adhere to sane meth- 
ods of holding land ; to reestablish and maintain the methods of ad- 
ministering the affairs of the people of this Republic under which we 
have prospered and progressed — the methods which have prevailed in 
the world since the birth of the modem state. [Applause.] 

39379 — 18168 — Washington: Government Printing Office: 1918. 



MENACE OF THE 

I. w. w. 



SENATOR KING SAYS BOTH LABOR AND CAPITAL 

FACE PERIL FROM CRIMINALS WORKING 

FOR NATION'S ENEMIES 

The New York Times Magazine, September 2, 1917. 

In the West the I. W. W, has been most active. From a Western 
man, William H. King, United States Senator from Utah, comes the 
sternest arraignment of that organization hitherto uttered. Utah, as is 
well known, had to face the I. W. W. menace at the time of Hillstrom's 
execution, and probably no man of prominence in this country is better 
posted on the doctrines and activities of the I. W. W. than the Senator, 
who has studied these doctrines in order to expose their danger to this 
country. How seriously he regards that danger is presented for the first 
time below. 

Air. King, though a new man in the Senate, has won recognition there 
because of his direct and fearless way of meeting issues. It was he who 
was prompt to counter on Senator La Follette's recent "peace resolution" 
with a resolution that "the Government of the United States will not 
make peace * * * until the German Government shall have acknowl- 
edged and expiated its crimes and shall seek terms upon which it may be 
admitted to the community of civilized and enlightened States. * * *" 

When asked what he considered the peril of the I. W. W. to be, 
Senator King answered : 

"Perhaps there is no greater menace to the internal peace and domestic 
tranquillity of our country than this diabolical association. It is difficult, 
in view of our standards of civilization and the Christian ideals and 
ethical concepts of the American people, to comprehend how such a malig- 
nant growth could fasten itself upon our industrial system. However, we 
find in nature the strange paradox that extremes sometimes meet ; and so, 
in society and in Government, the righteous and the progressive forces 
are often clogged by dark and destructive elements. 

"Numerically the I. W. W. organization is not strong. I do not think 
its membership exceeds 50,000, and yet its name has become a source of 
terror and fear, for the same reason that a mad dog in the crowded 
thoroughfare, or a murderous maniac at large, might terrify a large 
community. 

"I say that it is a treasonable organization. This is not overstating it, 
because it is giving aid and comfort to the enemies of this Republic. Its 
leaders and members defiantly announce that they will commit deeds of 
violence, and assail the very foundations of the Government and of society. 
They attack in subtle and in open manner the industrial life of the nation 
to bring about the result that there will be no resources for military organ- 
ization or preparedness, so that this country may be prevented from giving 
any aid or support to the forces of the great nations with which we are 
united in an effort to defend liberty and defeat Prussian militarism. 



"The members of this organization have no interest in this Govern- 
ment or in any Government. Indeed, they disclaim any nationality. They 
know no flag except the flag of revolution, and no emblem except that 
which stands for murder and the most savage depravity. They refuse 
allegiance to any country, deny the authority of any Governmental agency, 
and desire the destruction of every form of authority or Government, 
national and municipal. Having no flag and no country, and wishing the 
overthrow of this great Republic, they are doing everything within their 
power to prevent the nation and the people from mobilizing their resources, 
developing their industries, raising armies and building navies, and taking 
effective steps to vigorously prosecute the war. 

"If German troops were upon our shores they would furnish informa- 
tion that would aid in their efforts to subjugate our people. If they can 
communicate any information to our enemies that would aid them in their 
eflforts against us they will willingly impart it. Indeed, their plan is to do 
everything possible to hinder and prevent the prosecution of the war ; to 
sow the seeds of internal revolution; to spread sedition; to inflame the 
passions of the ignorant, and to demoralize and disorganize all of the 
forces that make for law and order. 

"The evidence seems to be very strong, though more or less circum- 
stantial, that members of the organization are in the employ of Germany. 
Certain it is that many of them are supplied with an abundance of gold, 
and denounce this country and speak approvingly of Germany. In some 
sections where Austrians were employed the I. W. W's. urged them to 
strike, using as an argument, among others, that they were producing 
materials which would be used by the Allies and by this country against 
their countrymen in Austria. In several instances these appeals were 
effective and resulted in serious strikes and disorders. I feel sure that 
the Department of Justice, which has been diligent in protecting the 
interests of our country and our people, has a mass of evidence supporting 
this view, and upon the trial of some of these I. W. Ws. indubitable evi- 
dence will be produced connecting members of the organization with 
German intrigues. 

"The members of this criminal species find their way into the indus- 
trial circles and among all the laboring classes. Their purpose is to 
compel by threats or other means all laborers to strike, in order to arrest 
all of the forces necessary to the life of the nation. They attempt to close 
every mine, shut down every factory and manufacturing plant, stop every 
train, prevent the planting of all crops or the reaping of the harvest. They 
declare that they are a revolutionary organization, and that the question of 
right and wrong does not concern them, their methods, or their aims. They 
boldly declare, as a part of their creed, that the interference of the Govern- 
ment will be opposed by open violation of the Government's orders, and 
they advocate the use of militant and 'direct action,' by which they mean 
the use of force and violence, the employment of every weapon to destroy 
Government, paralyze industry, and demoralize society. 

"They see in this world war an opportunity, as they believe, to bring 
about their plan of destroying all government and capital, and of seizing 
whatever there is corporeal or physical in this world. In pursuance of this 
nefarious design they destroy property by the use of dynr.mite and in an 
incendiary way. 

"They have been especially active in their efforts to shut down the 
copper and lead producing mines of the West. They appreciate the im- 
perative necessity of our Government, not only for its own usee, but for 
the use of the nations with whom we are co-operating in this war. pro- 
curing immense quantities of copper and lead. Accordingly, they invaded 
peaceable mining camps where high wages were p^id and general pros- 
perity existed, and by violence, intimidation, seditious utterances, and 
poisonous, treasonable efforts, they caused thousands of miners to leave 
their employment, as a result of which mines have been shut down and a 
chaotic condition produced. 



"The agricultural districts were invaded and the torch applied wher^ 
unsuccessful efforts were made to prevent the harvesting of crops, bvei.v 
bridge and tunnel of our land, and particularly in the West, has to be 
guarded by armed soldiers against the treacheries of this criminal class, 
who would destroy them and thus prevent the operation of the trains and 
halt the transportation forces of our country. They would, if they had 
the power, destroy all bridges, railroads, and ships. 

"They terrorize the honest wage earner, and do not hesitate to assassi- 
nate him if they cannot secure his allegiance by other means. Life has no 
sacredness to^hem, and it does not stand in the way of the accomplish- 
ment of their designs. They openly teach murder, and they defiantly 
advocate the destruction of property and the overthrow of government. 

"Their organization, under any and all circumstances, is a menace to 
organized society and government, but it is particularly deadly in a crisis 
such as confronts our nation today. In order to carry on the war success- 
fully our fields and farms must be productive; our factories must be 
operated to their full capacity, and every resource of the people must be 
employed in the most efficient way. We must produce and produce still 
more. This means organization, union, co-operation, domestic tranquillity, 
and contented, patriotic, enthusiastic people in all the broad land. 

" 'Sabotage' is a word employed by them, and they urge 'sabotage' as 
applied to our vast industrial machine. As they employ the word, it 
means intimidation, coercion, and any means necessary to gain an end; 
it means the throwing into the delicate machinery of the industrial organ- 
ization any foreign substance that will destroy the machine. This foreign 
substance is generally force, violence, or murder. 

"They declare that by revolution and violence capitalism must be 
destroyed and all of the industries of the world surrendered to them. 
They proclaim that there is a guerrilla warfare as well as a battle ; that 
the battle is between two opposing forces and must culminate in the 
destruction of human government, organized society, the ownership or 
property, and our civilization. It is not higher wages or improved con- 
ditions for the laboring man for which this organization is striving. It is 
admitted that whatever demands are conceded by employers today others 
shall be made tomorrow; that whatever agreements may be entered into 
they should be violated; that instead of orderly development and har- 
monious relation between employer and employe, there should be revolu- 
tion and no amity or freindly co-operation. 

"Some people entertain the view that the I. W. W. organization is 
seeking the amelioration of the condition of the laboring man, and there 
has been some sympathy in certain sections for members of this organiza- 
tion. As stated, such is not its object. The people might as well know 
exactly the character of the association. It as bitterly assails the laborin?^ 
man who believes in labor unions, in government, in law and order, in 
the Christian civilization of the day, as it does the man who employs labor. 

"If 50,000 men should meet together in some public square in the City 
of New York, and there openly and synically deny the existence of a God, 
of all moral restraints, of all standards of ethics or righteousness, and 
should proclaim eternal opposition to the sanctity of marriage and the 
building of homes and the assumption of the obligations entailed by the 
rearing of a family, and to all forms of government, either municipal, 
State, or national; and if they should further declare that they intended 
to shut down every factory, close every store, prevent the operation of 
the street cars, take possession of the city, deprive owners of their prop- 
erty, whether large or small; and if, following these declarations, they did 
attempt to carry them into effect, and did close factories and plants, and 
turn men out of employment, and cause violence, strikes, rnurders, arson, 
and the wanton destruction of life and property; and if they further 
attempted to take . possession of the Government, and made war upon 
those who were attempting to preserve peace and order, and, finally, they 



succeeded in reducing- everything to welter, chaos, and ruin, then some 
idea might be obtained of the plans and purposes and methods of opera- 
tion of this hideous, malevolent association of the I. W. W. 

"So far as I can learn, the overwhelming majority of the membership 
are aliens. It was stated in some of the newspapers that of those recently 
deported from Bisbee, Ariz., one-half were Alexicans, and a considerable 
number were Austrians, and only a small proportion were native-born 
Americans. They are nomadic, houseless, and homeless. They have no 
family ties ; no habits of thrift or sobriety, and, in every sense of the 
word, are utterly at war with our institutions, our forms of society, and 
our industrial and Governmental life. They resent those habits of industry 
and thrift which are regarded as virtues among all decent and civilized 
people. 

"To I. W. W. members there is no God, nothing infinite, immortal, 
or eternal. We are in a blind world of chance without design and without 
purpose. Order, union, law, government, wholesome restraint, religion — 
all of these words are meaningless to them, and the forms, influence, and 
powers behind them, and accompanying them, are the objects of their 
hatred and implacable fury. Of course, such a creed will attract to it the 
Godless, the wicked, the corrupt, the criminal, and all those whose brutish 
instincts rebel at decency and right thinking and right living. And so 
most of the I. W. Ws. are vagabonds and tramps. They are the flotsam 
and jetsam on the tumultuous sea of life. Many go from the penitentiary 
to the I. W. W. organization, and many go from the I. W. W. organization 
to the penitentiary — and more should go there. 

"It is singular, but v/e find some bitter opposition from the I. W. Ws. 
to trade unions as to the capitalists, so-called. The result, of course, must 
be that the members of the labor unions cannot be, and are not, in sym- 
pathy with the I. W. W. Trade unionism fosters, as the I. W. W. says, 
industry and the belief that there is a common interest between the em- 
laboring people and seeks to have industry, peace, and order and proper 
ployers and the employes. Trade unionism brings stability among the 
development. The true laboring man is anxious for the perpetuity of 
society, the maintenance of good government, and proper growth and 
development in all of the activities of trade and commerce. The I. W. W. 
proclaims the abolition of the wage system and declares that capitalism 
must be destroyed. One of their principal teachers says : The question 
of right and wrong does not concern us. * * * All opposition, so long 
as the wage system lasts, is but an armed truce. At any favorable oppor- 
tunity the struggle for more control of industry is renewed.' 

"It is obvious that such an organization is an outlaw. It cannot exist 
in a country where property rights are respected, where law, order, schools, 
religion, industry, business, progress, and civilization are found. It is 
difficult to deal with this menace, but the situation today calls for vigorous 
repressive measures. Already the Government is moving to repress the 
activities of its leaders and to prevent its treasonable and lawless course. 

"The secretary of the organization, Mr. Rowan, was recently arrested, 
and doubtless others will soon be brought before the bar of justice. I think 
it should be said that perhaps some of the followers of this revolutionary 
movement do not quite appreciate the inherent viciousness of the system 
and the ultimate end of its preachments. Of course, the person cast from 
society, one whose crimes have isolated him from society, would naturally 
gravitate to an organization which aimed at the destruction of society. 
A man without conscience- -the cold-blooded murderer — would seek com- 
rades among an organization teaching such abhorrent doctrines. 

"A few years ago a number of the members of the association came 
to the State of Utah. One of their number, named Hillstrom, with one 
of his associates, committed a foul murder. After a fair trial he was 
convicted and executed. The courageous Governor of the State, William 
Spry, refused commutation of his sentence, and members of the organiza- 



tion attempted to assassinate the Governor. The executed criminal became 
an idol of these outlaws, and a number of them followed his ashes as 
they were carried through the streets of Chicago and glorified his death 
and the wicked cause with which he was identified. 

"A number of measures supplementing existing law are now pending 
in Congress that perhaps may aid in dealing with some of the activities of 
this criminal body. One of the bills which I introduced provides that if 
two or more persons shall conspire or combine together to oppose the 
execution, or to impede the operation of any law of the United States, or 
to intimidate any officer or person charged with the enforcement of any 
law of the United States; or if any person or persons shall counsel, 
advise, or incite by words or statements, whether spoken or printed, 
sedition, riot, insurrection, or unlawful assembly, to oppose the execution 
or enforcement of any law of the United States; or if any person or 
persons shall advise, counsel, persuade, or incite, or shall utter words or 
statement which shall tend to persuade or incite any person to break any 
contract with the Government of the United States, or to break any 
contract which has to do with the production, fabrication, manufacture, or 
transportation of any article, commodity, or thing for the use of or 
intended for the use of the United States, he or they shall be guilty of a 
misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof shall be punished by imprison- 
ment. 

"This bill is aimed at the activities of the I. W. W., and seeks to 
punish them for their efforts to paralyze the arm of the Government and 
prevent it from prosecuting the war, I hope a broad and comprehensive 
law will be enacted that will more effectively aid the Government in its 
efforts to protect industry and labor and to punish and overthrow, if 
possible, an organization the objects of which are so grave a menace to 
the foundations of society and government." 

GOVERNMENT OWNERSHIP 

Copyright, 1917, by John W. Batdorf 

The Federal Convention of 1787 wrote into the Constitution but four 
of the five natural principles which pertain and govern political, economic, 
industrial, business, professional and private life. These four principles 
are centralization, conservation, preservation and concentration. The laws 
of nature centralize everything; nothing can escape its power. From it 
comes conservation in order to preserve what has been produced by 
centralization. Those who control it, naturally abhorring distribution, 
want to carry it on to preservation, and finally, under the immutable law 
of sequences, it lands into concentration for the benefit of the few who 
control the autocracy of power. 

Jefferson, because of his early struggles on the then frontiers of 
Virginia, and with his early writings in mind, as the Bill of Rights — ^the 
first ten amendments to the Constitution, which were added in 1791, con- 
tended with Hamilton that the fifth principle — ^distribution — should be an 
additional amendment with the other ten. Because of the spirit of Aris- 
tocracy, then ruling, Jefferson lost, and from this fact, as there is not one 
word, and never was, in the Constitution placing distribution in governing 
power, we, during the 126 years of Constitutional life, have gone in turn 
from production to conservation and then on to preservation ; now we 
face the precipice of concentration, which means, by the authority of 
history, death itself. 

Our industries are now practically concentrated into corporate indus- 
trialism, backed and supported by its affinity — congested wealth. Hence, 
we have had vigorous and insistent protests from the anarchy of democ- 
racy, Socialism, which naturally and consequently ends in such organiza- 
tions known a? the I. W. W. 



Beyond tlie vvaf itself aiid what is to come aftcf the war, no sub- 
ject has so much interest to the people at large as that of Government 
ownership, and, co-ordinately with it, the question of how to raise 
$8,000,000,000 by taxation. The war makes both of these questions not 
only relative but inspires cogent reasonings in discussions, and when 
one of these questions is brought up the other enters, too, for settlement. 

The profiteering by the corporations gives pregnancy to the thought 
that by raising prices on commodities, and then by taxing profits, a 
great sum of money can be gained for revenue to support the Govern- 
ment to win this war. But, assuredly, this operation is placing a tre- 
mendous tax on consumption, and in an open manner, too, which, in the 
very nature of things, will bring about a reaction on patriotism; on 
the administration which today holds the confidence of the people ; and 
upon the membership of the present Congress now so united upon legis- 
lative matters to win this war. And to win this war we must give our all, 
no matter what legislative burden is placed upon the backs of the people. 

The people are bearing the strain of war under the present law 
most nobly, and this is one of the precious accruments coming to the 
people because of this unhappy debacle of war. But the question we 
wish to put, Will the doubling of the tax gained by the Bill of October 
3rd, 1917, all of it in the last analysis calling for additional taxes placed 
on consumption, break the backbone of the present confidence exist- 
ing among the people? We should say yes to this question, because 
the element of hope for a lower cost of living has been left out in the 
proposition presented. But by installing Government ownership by the 
plan outlined in the Geometric Tax proposition, the nation will not 
only raise the money by cheerful giving, but install hope and reinforce 
patriotism, too, in the hearts and in the souls of the American people. 
No thought except that of hope will fuse the varied peoples of all nations 
assembled here and make of us one people in fact as well as in name. 

The people, however, have assented to, and the Government has insti- 
tuted many Commissions to control public utilities, and now discussion is 
on in earnest to provide a proper plan to give to the people the benefits 
and accommodations needed by them. Because of this many people, news- 
papers and politicians are advancing the theory and ideals of government 
ownership, and making them so attractive that the American people may 
obtain a false conception of what this kind of government rule might 
mean. 

Many books have been written giving the description of what has been 
done in this movement for government ownership by other nations, and. 
for this reason, it is unnecessary for us to give a history of what has 
been accomplished in Europe, Australia and New Zealand. It is our privi- 
lege, however, to place before the American people what powers they 
possess to bring about an American plan for government ownership in 
those industries which are now, and may be in the future, incorporated 
under the laws of State and Nation. 

The statute laws of the States contain the power to give to individuals 
the right to organize corporations. When a group of three or more per- 
sons apply for a State charter, the necessary legal instrument to organize 
a corporation, they practically agree with the State to abandon their private 
business right (except the right to elect the Board of Directors) to govern 
their new business authorized by the charter granted by the State, and to 
accept the power of State laws instead, to publicly control the business of 
their corporation. American citizens must begin to understand that where 
the State controls, the meaning of which is that the people control, the 
individual citizen in the business established under the corporate law has 
no power of control over it except what the laws of the State gives to 
him. While under the laws regulating co-partnerships and personal 
business, the citizen has certain inalienable rights guaranteed to him by 
the Constitution to conduct a private business as he thinks wise and best, 
but the trouble comes in when prosecuting this form of business, that the 



obligation of contracts in section X of Article I, makes him personally 
responsible for all debts and contracts entered into. jBesides the desire to 
create and carry on the larger business, and which could be better 
developed under corporate laws, the group of persons not only take 
advantage of the corporate law to transact business affairs, but, in 
addition, it gives to them freedom from personal liability for debts and 
contracts created. This proposition is unquestionably immoral and has 
had everything to do to lower the moral standard of personal obligation 
for debt. Instead of going to higher levels in business honesty, the 
tc-ndency today is surely descending to the level where the contract is 
made with d::phcity, and by a legal quibble, finally stands only to be 
broken at will. 

TO SAFEGUARD AMERICAN 

CAPITAL, INDUSTRY, AND THE 

RIGHT TO LABOR 

All classes of people, because of war and the economic reconstruction 
which is now taking place all over the world, must now recognize that 
the governing conditions as they existed before the war are forever gone. 
The era of the nineteenth century is closed and it only remains for history 
to record what happened in the most glorious era of civilization. The 
coming century will unquestionably add luster to the world's history, but 
it must come because of the natural advancement of the human race, not 
so much by concentration but by the way of Jeffersonian principles of 
de-centralization. 

The ideals of Americanism emanate solely and alone from the Fed- 
eral Constitution. Up to October 12th, 1776, America was governed by 
the ideals of Aristocracy — that of landlord and tenant. On that im- 
mortal day, never to be forgotten, Thomas Jefferson, member of the 
Virginia House of Burgesses, introduced a "bill to enable tenants in tail 
to convey entailed property in fee simple. Two days later he reported 
a bill doing away with the whole system of entail . . . and the cognate 
principle of primogeniture followed assailed by the same vigorous hand." 
This date, October 12th, 1776, stands as a monument and as a milestone in 
American history, dividing the ruling power of Aristocracy from that of 
the Democracy of Americanism ; first under the democracy of the Con- 
tinental Congress, and second under that of the Federal Constitution, 
written in 1787 and adopted in 1789. 

Government ownership and what form of taxation to be assessed are 
bound to be the most vital questions of the coming era ; and before we 
can accomplish the slightest advancement we must recognize some cognate 
facts, (i) Men who will form corporations and men now interested in 
the present corporations must realize that capitalization rests upon the 
sound base of actual capital, capital represented by cash or real property, 
capital which must be tangible and can be inventoried by tabulation and 
not by the guess of intangible good-will which the corporation never 
owned. This great question of who owns good-will must now be settled 
and agreed upon before any advancement can be made. At the present 
time, corporations are in a quagmire of distress and doubt as to their 
standing before the laws of the land and before the people — the powers 
that are supreme to hold and control the regulations under which cor- 
porations must be financed, operated and conducted. 

The reason for the situation, in which the corporations now find them- 
selves, is that because of the fact that the good-will of the buyer ha? b-^cn 
the agency to pay in full the stock shares of corporations, a f'il?e b.i^is 
for capital has been created, and which must end in either the bankruptcy 
of capital or the impoverishment of the society over which it mai -tiins 
a monopoly to compel it to pay tribute for the renewal of capital. What 
we mean to declare is that in the first instance society has permitted the 
promoters of corporations to take its bu3nng power value to pay up its 
proposed capitalizatoin, and second the corporations, by the power of 



monopoly to make prices, have steadily increased the cost of commodities 
in order to pay dividends upon watered capital. By binding the members 
or society to pay a dividend upon their own capital value, and if the 
dividend openly or secretly amounts to an average of ten per cent, an- 
nually, then, by the laws of mathematics, every ten years a full one hun- 
dred per cent, has been taken from society, regardless of the natural 
depreciation society suffers by its impoverishment. 

Calculations based upon natural and well-known geometrical increases 
and decreases, i.e. where one power rises geometrically its antithesis or 
opposite power must fall in the same proportion as the other rises, show 
what is life to one power means death to the other power upon which it 
feeds. Therefore, if the American nation permits a ruthless class to take 
over proven geometrical calculations, embodied in financial and business 
dealings to impoverish the balance of population, to "get-rich-quick," then, 
the American nation, with its tremendous and ever-growing population, 
by its folly, would see the overturn of the inverted pyramid so built, and 
plunge the nation into a vortex of anarchy and destructive war. 

The future holds possibilities that wiser men in industrial, financial 
and economic discussions will grasp these twentieth century ideals based 
upon truths and incontrovertible facts, and present declarations and influ- 
ences in such a manner that will induce the owners of American wealth, 
and the great minds controlling industr}^, to be much more concerned 
about the safety of wealth already garnered, and the industry already 
founded, than the making of an unusual and immoral future profit : 
That capitalism, instead of striving to satisfy human selfishness, will be 
eager to lend itself for the public welfare : 

That capital and labor combined may then have power of initiative in 
business enterprises, free from such restrictive laws as the Sherman Anti- 
trust law ; their rights should be respected in corporate industrialism, if 
the American people are to enjoy personal liberty and to have individual 
ambition to thrive and do well : 

That both capital and labor may then derive Constitutional justice in 
such measurement as to make it naturally impossible for strikes and 
lockouts to occur : 

That our industrial and agricultural workers might abhor the thought 
of direct action to obtain a recognizance of the rights fundamental!}^ 
belonging to labor : 

That labor organizations may be more anxious to please the consumers 
of their product than to have their minds centered upon higher wages 
and less hours : 

That the loss of human vitality, accumulating each day as the laborer 
toils, may, in old age, be accounted and paid for in the exact ratio and 
proportion as he had given production to the community in his working 
days : 

That labor, then having the power to conserve its own integrity, may 
inherit the fruits of labor as Abraham Lincoln foretold in his famous 
saying that "labor is prior to and independent of capital. Capital is only 
the fruit of labor and could never have existed if labor had not existed 
first. Labor is the superior of capital and deserves much the higher 
concifieration." 

THE NATURAL LAW MUST BE OBEYED 

And realizing that no State taxes good-will, nor is it considered in 
the make-up of valuation in any State of the Union, in the ultimate we 
must face Government ownership and a new system of taxation. And 
Government ownership can only be founded and built up on three well- 
recognized bases of the natural law. 

Concentration by a bureaucratic ruling power, such as obtains in Germany : 
Confiscation, the anarchy of Socialism-Bolshevikism : 

De-centralization. Jeffersonianisni. the sentiment and expression in words 
which the American mind accepts as representing the natural law of 
distribution, i.e., that all the heirs should enjoy the distribution of 
the family fortune instead of but one ; distribution of lands and 



incomes, the product of the laborers, with govcrnnientai opi)ortunitics 
tc all of the people to enjoy distribution rather than that special privi- 
leges and monopol}' should be given to the few. In fact, the distrib- 
uting economics we know of and accept in the one word — Americanism. 
The" three forms of Government ownership more distinctly stated arc 
as follows . 

(i) The German system, as developed in the Reichstag from 1C74 
t( 1884, was largely based upon the thought of Rodbertus, i.e., an imperial 
l)0wer to control industrial concentration, with an evolutionary period 
't centuries to bring about a more equal distribution of proJLictijns 
\.c the working classes. This proposition was intended to allay and to 
escape the thought of Marxian socialism coming to Germany, and 
^though 4,500,000 of German voters supported socialism, it was StcLt? so- 
cialism and a far different proposition from that founded by Kurl Mirx. 

In Germany the rule has been that the child at four years of a.Z- is 
riven over for six daj^s of the week to the school-master and to the 
irinister on the seventh. Each student is educated on lines for specie.! 
vocational work, and when school and university days are over, the 
State gives place for employment wherein the citizen becomes the serf 
to an autocracy installed until death relieves him from his cares. The 
German system of Government ownership gives no room for individ-.:al 
initiative to thrive and do well to satisfy human ambition. In our 
nation we recognize what this principle means and we should never 
forget it, yet, with its undoubted success, our Postal system is founded 
and operated on the same lines as the German system. 

(2) The socialist proposition for Government ownership is founded 
on the natural law of confiscation, brought about by an era of intense 
concentration. It offers no pretense to compensate former owners for 
property taken over by the State, nor to establish a central power to 
govern. It is based upon a fallacious doctrine that publicly used prop- 
erty belongs only to the public, and that anyone desiring work may 
take any opening presented, without any further provision than that 
public property is for use and not for profit. Bolshevikism and the 
Russian nation are telling the tale by the anarchy installed. 

(3) The Jeffersonian plan, based upon decentralization, may be used 
to represent the American thought for Government ownership, because 
it is in harmony wath the Federal Constitution as a governing power. 
The other two plans, one based upon autocracy under a government 
ruled by bureaucracy, and the other based upon confiscation with no 
governing power at all, are both abhorrent to the ethics and to the ideals 
inherent to our people and to the check and balance system upon which 
our Government is founded. 

The New York American, in an editorial dated July 6th, 1918, says, 
"After we have taken over the railroads, the ships, the telegraphs and 
telephones, we should at once proceed to take into public possession the 
coal mines, the oil deposits, the forests and the water powers. . . . We 
must have Government ownership of these vital factors of business and 
must operate them solely for the int-^rest of the whole people. . . . One 
of two thin.7^ we surely will have. We will either have State socialism, 
controlling all the affairs of the nation and of the individual, or we 
win have public ownershin of those things which are of right and in 
their nature pvblic, combined with private ownership of those things 
which are of right and m their nature private. We will have either a 
judicious and healthful radicalism, or we will have a revolutionary 
socialism m our political and economic affairs." 

The New York- American untortunately is assertive: seldom specific 
1-. Its phrases This paper rarely tells how it-^ proposals and purposes 
pre to be accomplished. Our people want neither the German system 
of Govtrnment ownership nor the Alarxian system of .Socialism. Neither 
rt these two systems conform to the ethics and ideals of the American 
tl'.cory of Goveinment. Out would end in the worst form ot bureaucracy; 



the other would end in anarchy and destruction, Thomas Jefferson's 
principles for decentralization conform to the Constitution by the Gov- 
ernment owning the value of actual capital assets of the corporations for 
bonds issued, i.e., "To borrow money on the credit of the United States : 
To regulate commerce among the States." * 

) Mr. Hearst and his papers should declare what form of Govern- 
ment ownership he and his papers want, (i) German State socialism 
based upon concentration of power, (2) Marxian socialism based upon 
confiscation with no compensation to owners for property taken over by 
Government, (3) The American form of Government ownership based 
upon decentralization with full payment for inventoried capital asset., 
of corporations, tabulated as for new replacement of such property. 
If we must go to Government ownership, our faith is predominant that 
the American people will choose the xA.merican plan rather than submit 
to Autocracy in government or the anarchy desired by the socialist. 

Under Article i, section 8, Congress, with the approval of the Presi- 
dent, has power in time of war to install the American thought for 
Government ownership, so that the present administration, and the suc- 
ceeding administrations, too, may gain additional prestige and political 
power. President Lincoln in time of war proclaimed emancipation to an 
enslaved race, but in 1865 this nation found it necessary to add the 13th 
Amendment to .the Constitution to make President Lincoln's words 
good. Because of war, we have the same opportunit}^ now to create 
Government ownership to free actual capital from confiscation; to free 
industrial workers from a serfdom more galling than slavery itself ; 
and, best of all, to free the consumers from the bondage they are now 
under to pay the price for commodities the corporations please to charge. 
After the war the people have power to add the Geometric Tax amend- 
ments to. the Constitution to make the war act for Government owner- 
ship good and inflexible to rule the American nation on lines of right 
rather than by the might possessed by concentration of power. 

The warning is plain. Concentration of power is now secretly 
maneuvering to obtain the mastery over the people in the coming Govern- 
ment ownership enactments. It was so in 1808 when the U. S. Supreme 
Court judicially declared in the Madison-AIarbury case that it had power 
to rule whether a statute law was constitutional or unconstitutional. 
The Constitution gave the Supreme Court no such power, but, to pre- 
serve its dignity as one of the three erected powers under the Constitu- 
tion, the Court is compelled to exercise its powers when the people have 
failed in their plain duty to add amendments to the Constitution, covering 
the particular point in law needed by the Court. 

Also, in cases 164 U. S. 686, 113 U. S. 396 and 119 U. S. no, the 
Court decided that corporations were citizens and persons and that the 
corporations had the same rights in law as the natural person. In other 
words, that the one stick representing the natural citizen, and the concrete 
bundle of sticks, representing a collective number of persons, each had 
the same rights in commercial enterprises. The fault of this decision, 
never corrected by the people, was that the concentration of the bundle 
had power to destroy the natural person in business ; and today th-,- 
citizen cannot do business at all in competition with the corporations. 

The people, on this question of Government ownership, must decid ~ 
for themselves if they are to retain the benefits coming to the natic: 
by the reconstruction of the times. The Hearst newspapers, with othc/ 
interests contemplating professional and better financial returns for 
capital and labor, are advocating Government ownership based upon 
concentration of power — the German system. In opposition to this plan 
of governmental care under State socialism, the American Constitutional 
.'\lliance is advocating decentralization — i.e., Jeffersonianism — as the peo- 
ple's plan for Government ownership. 

♦The Constitution, Article i, Section 8. 



THE CALL FOR STATE SOCIALISM 

Legislation at Washington, at State capitals, and the planks in munici- 
pal political platforms, all have a tendency to advocate government and 
municipal ownership of utilities, mines, forests, railroads, shipping, manu- 
facturing plants, corporate business now established as trusts, and which 
includes such commodities as foods, feeds, milk, meat products, cottons, 
woolens, shoes, steel, paper, and, in fact, if necessary, all articles wanted 
by man for use to live or luxury for comfort. 

If the American psople install government and municipal ownership, 
and give the control of all utilities and the manufacture and sale of all 
commodities to governmental agencies to supply the wants of the American 
people, then we must accept the force and power of State Socialism, or, 
in other words, Prussianism, the bureaucratic rule which the world today 
is so bitterly fighting Germany to destroy. State Socialism is but a step 
toward Scientific Socialism with all its materialism, atheisrn, and social, 
political and business anarchy; because, as human ambition is never 
satisfied until the ultimate desire is reached, we must prepare ourselves 
for the next step in socialist procedure — ^the repudiation of the interest 
due on the bonds issued by government, when it took over the properties 
from private ownership. This action would be a death-blow to Ameri- 
canism, as founded by our forefathers to preserve the principle of the 
profit system and to hold to the inviolability of the right of private 
ownership of property. 

To back up our words we have only to incorporate what Senator 
Harding of Ohio says in an article published in the New York Times, 
August 12th, 1917, as follows : "What the United States needs and what 
it must have if it is to win the war is a supreme dictator with sole control 
of and sole responsibility for every phase of war activity, and this means 
today practically every phase of government. More than that; not only 
does this country need such a dictator, but in my opinion it is sure to have 
one before the war goes much further. It is the inevitable logic of events 
here in Washington." Also, these words of Senator Newlands of Nevada 
in the New York Times of July 29th, 1917, as follows : "It is a reasonable 
prediction that no industry which is taken over by the Government will 
ever go back to private ownership. . . . For example, the coal opera- 
tors met at the invitation of the Government and discussed prices, a thing 
they hardly would have dared to do before the war. And as to railroads, 
the Government, by law, has authorized the appointment of an Executive 
Committee by all the roads for the purpose of co-ordinating their energies. 
This thing would have been open to suspicion, to say the least, before the 
war. So, you see, the tendency of war conditions is to substitute for 
penalization of combinations a control and regulation of combinations. 
If this proves successful and results to public advantage it will be con- 
*'nued after the war. And collectivism in Government will encourage a 
regulated collectivism in industry." 

The American people are now at the cross-roads of fate. Our splen- 
'i'-d Republic, because of concentration, is now held by the powers of war, 
-nd by the industrial and financial forces, too, in the balance. Hence, 
"'^her we are to go rushing on to be finally encompassed by the anarchy 
of democracy — Socialism — or, as patriots for self-preservation, we wake 
up and by amendment put distribution in the Constitution, whereby, in 
giving to the laborer the full product of his labor, we distribute the future 
production of wealth to the affinities entitled to it. The corporate law 
of the States give, except the right of electing the Board of Directors, no 
private right of control over corporations, whether they may be large or 
small. All persons, as capitalists or workers, when engaged in corporate 
activities, give up and renounce their private rights in business affairs an i 
do agree at the very beginning, when taking up their life and work for 
their corporation, that every capitalistic and industrial action shall he 
controlled by the laws of the State in which they were incorporated and 



not by individual license to conserve private selfishness as against the 
public welfare. Because of this we must have a rightful division of all 
future earnings coming to capital and labor from the consumers. Because 
of its autocratic power, the Federal Constitution must stand as the arbi- 
trator to control and distribute these earnings, as the American people 
have no other power but that of themselves as sovereigns to rule. This 
power cannot come from any other source, nor can Americanism be saved 
but by the use of this power. Why should not this nation, in this hour 
of doubt, the turbulence of war, the greed for undue profits because o. 
war, install the principle of Thomas JeiTerson — the Geometric Tax — 
before it rushes headlong into Socialism? What we want to do most is 
to save Americanism and the Constitution for the preservation and the 
protection of our American posterity. 

However, the adherents of Karl Marx say that Socialism holds the 
cure, yet, we may ask, What does Socialism offer by the way of govern- 
ment control? If we accept that it is a reasonable economic thought we 
must accept, too, that it is government ownership under State Socialism, 
or, to accede to the demand that a co-operative commonwealth be estab- 
lished to govern and the taking over, without compensation to present 
ownership, all the means of production, distribution and exchange. In 
other words, the whole scheme is built upon the base of vulgar and cheap 
confiscation, a principle that must be accomplished by revolution and civil 
war. Its plan of government would eliminate private ownership of 
publicly used wealth and the abolishment of the profit system. A proposi- 
tion easily said but not at all easy to put in operation. It furthermore 
would permit no veto power over its legislation made from day to day, 
and no security could possibly be given to the citizen for the protection of 
environment nor for the savings of his labor. Therefore, it opposes the 
American constitutional form of government both relatively and abso- 
lutely. Relatively because it is a so-called democracy, having no principle 
of centralization to bring matters and things to a settlement at the time 
of ultimate crises; and absolutely because its anarchy of democracy would 
never permit the autocracy of the people to rule by inflexible consent in 
words as is the principle now instituted in the Federal Constitution. 

Therefore, Americanism means the profit system to give to the work- 
ers an opportunity of reward to live. Socialism means that no individual 
opportunity of reward shall be given to the working class so that they 
may live. All must work collectively for individual reward, trusting to 
the honesty of administrative ^distribution. In other words, all Socialists 
are to be regarded as angels^ in purity, and that Socialism means that no 
graft can exist in Socialist life. What child-like absurdity this would be 
to compare with the check and balance system of our Americanism which 
means, if it means anything at all, that every citizen may have the freedom 
of individual initiative in the construction and direction of business and 
political enterprises, holding inviolate the Constitutional right that "no 
person shall be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process 
of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use without just 
compensation." Socialism means a government with no centralization 
adopted ; no interest paid on bonds or notes ; no dividends to the owners 
of stock shares; no fees for professional service; no commissions for 
selling another man's goods ; no rents shall be collected from real estate 
property; no profits from public or commercial transactions; no wages 
are to be paid, as the Socialist cry has always been "death to wage 
slavery." But with a grandiloquent declaration for government ownership, 
presenting no predetermined plan which Americanism gives, backed by 
the constitutional power of the "supreme law of the land," to bring its 
activities to fulfillment, whereby the owner of property shall obtain a 
just return upon money invested ; the worker likewise to obtain the reward 
cheerful and willing consumers give so that he may live; the consumer 
to enjoy that satisfaction which comes from having a plentiful supply of 
food, clothing, shelter and luxuries at a cost within the income- granted 
by other consumers for the goods he individually produces. 




ORGAN IZATIO ij£'::i?,sii.srs^^ 

PURPOSES AND PLANS OF 

AMERICAN CONSTITUTIONAL / 

(i) The American Constitutional Alliance was miiQ -> 

ican patriots for the purpose of creating an influen 021 140 049 3 

legislative and political actions ; 

(2) To induce a more general knowledge of the ideals of Amer- 
icanism, eminating from the Federal Constitution, and to advance the 
belief that the fundamental governing power of the nation should be 
grounded within the Constitution in fact, as well as theory, and should 
not be created by the legislatures of the several states, nor by Congress ; 

(3) To induce the^ sovereign people to take upon themselves a 
mentorship over men desiring public office and places of responsibility in 
American political affairs, so that the Government need not be afflicted 
by politicians seeking positions for self-aggrandizement onl}^; 

(4) To oppose government by Bureaucracy', the antithesis of self- 
government as established by the Federal Constitution ; 

(5) To secure the recognition of the Federal Constitution as the 
"supreme law of the land," representing the will of the people as the 
sole governing power, so that under it and its amendments, the Nation 
may become more and more actually self-governing; 

^ (6) To defend the rights of private ownership of property and the 
maintenance of the profit system ; 

(7) To recognize that corporations derive their chartered powers 
from the State — the people — and that they should therefore be governed 
by the laws of the people and not by the absentee capitalist nor by a 
bureaucratic form of labor unionism ; 

(8) To promulgate the abolishing of the Hamiltonian theory of 
taxation, i.e., that government should be supported in the last analysis 
by an indirect tax upon consumption; and in its place, secure the 
adoption of the Jeffersonian theory of a direct tax upon profits and 
incomes. To prevent these taxes from being shifted to the backs of 
the consumers, the American Constitutional Alliance advocates that the 
mathematics belonging to the Geometric Tax principle be so applied that 
equity and justice may thereby be dispensed to everj'- American citizen 
in the exact proportion as each is entitled to it through the government 
installed by its citizenry; 

(9) To accord persuasion, through enlightenment and constitutional 
provision, a governing power superior to that of legislative concentra- 
tion, the American Constitutional Alliance advocates that the American 
people add the Geometric Tax amendments to the Constitution, so that 
an inflexible rule governing ^distribution may be created and thereby sup- 
port the morals of that which is an integral part of pure ethics in gov- 
ernment. 

(10) Therefore, to preserve the good created in the nineteenth 
century for the use of the civilization of the future, the American Con- 
stitutional AlHance calls upon true Americans, with real patriotism in 
their souls, to come forward and form club Alliances, each center electing 
a member to the State Executive Committee and permit the Chairman of 
this committee to automatically take his place as a member of the 
National Executive Committee stationed at New York City. 

The American Constitutional Alliance believes that the Geometric Tax 
on incomes and profits, in connection with its plan for Government Own- 
ership, will give to the National Government an income of more than 
$5,000,000,000 annually, without hurt or reaction to the American people. 
Send 20 cents in stamps to the Anti-Socialist Press, 117 West I32d Street, 
New York, for a copy of "Americanism, A Contrast to Single Tax and 
Socialism," and a copy of 'The Menace of the I.^ W. W.," with the remedy 
specifically outlined to cure all troubles now existing between capital and 
labor and for the safety of American wealth to its owners. THESE TWO 
BOOKS HOLD THE KEYS TO UNLOCK THE MYSTERIES SUR- 
ROUNDING THE DEMOCRATIC FORM OF SELF-GOVERNMENT. 



CONGRESS 




021 140 049 3 



HoUinger Corp. 
pH 8.5 



